"Step 1) Get jealous when your best friend gets the girl you like. Step 2) Try to get even with some stupid prank. Step 3) Let your best friend take the fall. With these easy steps, you'll end up with no project, no girl, and no best friend. Thank you." |
Derek Haig was a student at Degrassi Community School. He was portrayed by Marc Donato. When he was young, Derek was put up for adoption by his mother. He begins his run as a prankster with a few bullying tendencies, before becoming a bully after losing his best friend, Danny Van Zandt. While on the football team, he is good friends with Bruce the Moose, Riley Stavros, Jimmy Brooks, Peter Stone, Toby Isaacs, Spinner Mason and J.T. Yorke (before his death). He had conflicts with Holly J. Sinclair and Jane Vaughn.
Character History
Season 5
Jimmy got the chance to coach the basketball team, which annoyed Derek for he judged Jimmy for being paralyzed. He was proved wrong and was surprised and humbled when Jimmy beat him in a game of horse. Derek then asked Jimmy to coach him, to which Jimmy agreed. However, Jimmy made Derek promise that when he would show off his skills in front of his friends, to say that his coach taught him, not the guy who got shot. Derek and Jimmy then became friends.
In Turned Out (1), Craig and Manny set up Derek and Emma together for a date. Emma agrees, as she's tired of being a third wheel to Craig and Manny. Unfortunately, Derek and Emma's brief date does not go well. Emma finds him boring, and his love of hunting and meat turns Emma off, as she is a vegetarian. She politely, yet abruptly ends their date, saying that she isn't interested.
When Derek goes over Danny's house to be tutored by Liberty Van Zandt, Danny suggests they order a pizza. He then calls a pizza place and they get it delivered. While Liberty and Derek are alone, Derek asks if Liberty ever thought about keeping her baby. She takes the innocent question too personally, and orders Derek out of the house. He tries to apologize saying he only asked because he too was adopted, but Liberty won't listen. Later on, when J.T. Yorke and Liberty were making a treasure box by Derek's suggestion, Liberty asks both Danny and Derek to put some things inside, so the baby would know he had lots of good people supporting him.
Season 6
Derek with his best friend, Danny.
Danny and Derek were running in the hallway. They then ran into their History teacher, Mr. Perino which caused them to spill his coffee on himself and break his mug. Mr. Perino overreacts loudly causing the attention of Mr. Simpson, who remarks that they're just kids and make mistakes.
Later, when Danny presents his presentation on World War II, Mr. Perino said that the assignment was to write a summary in his own words and not copy it from the textbook. He then accuses him of plagiarizing. Derek angrily asks why Mr. Perino was being so mean and harsh, to which he responds for them to both redo the project together. After school, Mr. Perino threatens Derek and tells him to treat him with respect or else they are going to have a serious problem, leaving Derek in shock and fear.
Later the next day, Mr. Perino tells Derek to forget about what happened at the bus stop, realizing he was out of place. After Danny and Derek present their presentation on the United Nations, he calls on another student to present his presentation. Mr. Perino accuses the student of incompetency and makes inappropriate remarks
Derek and Danny want to be on Spirit Squad
when the student admits he wasn't prepared right away. Derek asks why he has to be so mean, Mr. Perino ignores him and asks everyone if they have a presentation or if he could just keep handing out zeros. Derek then sees Snake in the hallway. He then walks out and tells Snake about what just happened and about the previous incidents. It is implied that Mr. Perino is confronted, but not fired, as he is seen in later episodes.
Derek and Danny were also somewhat responsible for the eventual death of J.T. After overhearing Toby quietly talking about a small party at Emma's house for Liberty's birthday, Derek and Danny spread the word to everyone at Degrassi, which soon lead to people outside of the school finding out, including Lakehurst. Derek was also seen at J.T.'s memorial service alongside Danny later in the season.
Season 7
Later in the year, Peter, Danny, Derek and Rachel work on a video project together. Both Danny and Derek like Rachel and compete with each other on who should go first in asking her out. After she rejects Derek, she asks Danny out. The next day, Derek tells Danny that they need to "dump" Rachel because she rejected Derek. Derek realizes that Danny and Rachel are a couple, and claims that Danny "stole" Rachel from him, ending their friendship. Derek tries to get even with Danny by putting lingerie in Danny's backpack in a store, without Danny knowing about it. When Danny is caught with the lingerie by the racist store manager, he ends up in trouble, and is angry with Derek for putting him in that position. Derek realizes he was in the wrong, and apologizes to him in front of the class with their video project.
Season 8
Derek on the Degrassi Football Team.
Derek is accepted onto the Degrassi Football Team as a Tight End. However, he does not approve of Jane being on the team because she is a girl. He leads in taunting her for various reasons, particularly because she fumbled the ball in a game, which was because of Derek missing a block. The day after the game, some of the players on the team, including Daniel Van Zandt, wear shirts with the phrase 'Sorry I dropped the ball, it's my time of the month.' Jane becomes angry, and reports the shirt incident to Coach Sheppard. The team coach makes the team practice more vigorous because of the incident, and makes Jane participate in the punishment as well because he does not want to give her special treatment. After practice, the team is angry with Jane.
Derek continuously shoves Jane into lockers, and makes comments about her not being able to take a hit. Jane reacts by pushing Derek into a locker in retaliation and knocking him down. Bruce knocks Jane down, and Derek persists to kick Jane in the stomach. Riley sees what's going on and gets them to stop, pushing Derek off of her and shoving him down the hall.
When Jane tells Coach Sheppard about the incident involving Derek, he tells her she receives no special treatment. Jane then tries to leave the team but is persuaded to stay, once announcing this at a meeting in a locker room. Derek and some other boys try to reject her, but Sav, Danny, and Riley rethink their words and actions towards her, decide that she is on their team and stand up for her. Derek has also started hanging around Bruce the Moose.
Holly J. pours a milkshake on Derek's head
In Money for Nothing, he teases Holly J., who's working at The Dot. She retaliates by pouring his milkshake on his head.
In Bad Medicine, Danny hooks Derek and Leia up, after Derek tells him that he likes her. Danny asks Leia about giving Derek a chance, and she says yes, but only if he interrupts their date to save her. Danny agrees, but also realizes that he likes her but wouldn't feel right betraying Derek. He is also caught with the idea that Leia likes Derek after seeing them on their date, which coincidentally Derek and Leia were talking about Danny. Derek gives Danny permission to go after Leia knowing that he secretly likes her, which also rekindles the two's friendship. Danny and Leia then discuss what happen, and share a kiss.
In Heat of the Moment, when Bruce the Moose conducts the cafeteria in chanting "I Hate Holly J.", Derek joins in. Later, he jokingly brings a rope to school, but Holly J. ignores him.
In Up Where We Belong, Derek was called to the front office over the intercom. It is unknown what happened. It is possible that he may have been expelled.
Appearances
- Death of a Disco Dancer
- I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
- Turned Out (1)
- I Against I
- Total Eclipse of the Heart
- High Fidelity (1)
- Eyes Without a Face (1)
- Eyes Without a Face (2)
- Crazy Little Thing Called Love
- What's It Feel Like to Be a Ghost? (2)
- Rock This Town
- The Bitterest Pill No Lines
- If You Leave
- Don't You Want Me? (2) No Lines
Trivia
- Derek Haig is the second "Derek" in the Degrassi Franchise. The first is Derek Wheeler.
- They are also both adopted.
- Derek, Bruce the Moose, and Luke Baker were the only characters to be featured who left Degrassi without being in a relationship. Although Luke kissed Jenna, Bruce and Derek never kissed anyone from Degrassi.
- Two of Derek's crushes had feelings for Danny instead of him.
- He never was the center of a love triangle.
- Derek was one of six characters to be adopted. The other five are Wheels, Kendra, Holly J., Liberty and J.T.'s unnamed son, and Tyson.
- Derek was the second character to be "picked on" by a teacher. The first was Yick.
- In Got My Mind Set On You, along with Danny, it is revealed that Derek does not know who Yoko Ono and the Beatles are.
- Derek is the only regular in season 8 not to appear in season 9 (Mia guest starred in Just Can't Get Enough, Kelly guest starred in Holiday Road, and Liberty guest starred in Degrassi Takes Manhattan).
- Derek is the fifth of six characters to blackmail another character. He blackmailed Darcy Edwards for $20.00 to not show anyone her racy pictures, that he obtained from hacking her MyRoom page account. The first person was Arthur Kobalewscuy. He blackmailed his sister into letting his friend copy her school papers. The second person was Joey who blackmailed Dwayne for $314. The third person was Peter who attempted to blackmail Manny for a new video camera. The fourth was Danny who blackmailed J.T. to help him pass a parenting class. The fifth person was Derek Haig who blackmailed Darcy Edwards for $20.00 to not show anyone her racy pictures that he obtained from hacking her MyRoom page account. The sixth person was Jimmy Brooks, who blackmailed his father Jermaine Brooks for stem cell surgery.
- Derek loves watching wrestling.
- Derek has an interest in hunting.
- He is the fourth mascot for the Power Squad. The others are Tori, Zig, J.T. and Danny.
- While he never had a relationship, Derek has been on two dates.
- One was with Emma Nelson.
- The other was with Leia Chang.
Quotes
- "Why?" (First line) - Death of a Disco Dancer
- "I'm not gonna beat up a cripple." - Death of a Disco Dancer
- "Hey Alli, I brought some rope." (Final line) - Heat of the Moment
Interaction
| Friendships | Relationships | Conflicts | Attractions | Love Triangles |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Danny-Derek Friendship | Derek-Jane Conflict | Derek-Leia Attraction | Danny-Derek-Rachel Love Triangle | |
| Derek-Bruce Friendship | Holly J.-Derek Conflict | Danny-Derek-Leia Love Triangle | ||
| Derek-Johnny Friendship | Danny-Derek Conflict | |||
| Jimmy-Derek Friendship | Spinner-Derek Conflict | |||
| Johnny's Gang |
| v - e - d |
|---|
|
Alex • Alli • Anya • Ashley • Blue • Bruce • Caitlin • Chantay • Clare • Connor • Craig • Damian • Danny • Darcy • Dave • Declan • Derek • Ellie • Emma • Fiona • Hatzilakos • Hazel • Holly J. • J.T. • Jane • Jay • Jenna • Jimmy • Joey • Johnny • K.C. • Kelly • Leia • Liberty • Manny • Marco • Mia • Paige • Peter • Raditch • Riley • Sav • Sean • Snake • Spike • Spinner • Terri • Toby |